Starz Announces Premiere Date for Final SPARTACUS Season, Plus a Sneak Peek at SPARTACUS: WAR OF THE DAMNED

Sarz has announced that its gladiatorial series Spartacus will come to its conclusion with its third season, Spartacus: War of the Damned, which will premiere on Friday, January 25th 2013 at 9pm. Spartacus fashioned itself initially as a kind of response to HBO’s great but gone-too-soon series Rome, also piggybacking on the popularity of 300, but distinguished itself for being particularly violent, with lots of explicit sexual content.

Aside from having to establish itself among a bevy of currently running period dramas, the series faced difficulties during its first season when its star Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which lead Starz to produce a prequel mini-series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. Liam McIntyre then replaced Whitfield for the following season, Spartacus: Vengeance, and will finish out the series’ run. Hit the jump for more on Spartacus, including a sneak peek video of War of the Damned.

Series creator Steven S. DeKnight as well as Liam McIntyre and Simon Merrells have joined together for a short series recap and preview of the final season in this clip “Strategy of War.” From it, it looks like War of the Damned will have just as much blood, shirtlessness and short Roman skirts as prior seasons, but potentially may double down on the violence, if that’s possible.

Here’s the synopsis for Spartacus: War of the Damned:

“Spartacus: War of the Damned” takes place following the defeat of Roman commander Gaius Claudius Glaber. Spartacus and his men have amassed major victories against the Romans after the Battle of Vesuvius. These victories have not only forged the legend of Spartacus, but have greatly increased the ranks of the rebellion slaves to more than 30,000. Rome is indeed beginning to tremble at the threat Spartacus now represents.

“Spartacus: War of the Damned” sees the return of Liam McIntyre (Spartacus), Manu Bennett (Crixus), Dustin Clare (Gannicus), Dan Feuerriegel (Agron), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Naevia) and Ellen Hollman (Saxa). This year, Todd Lasance joins the cast as Gaius Julius Caesar, along with Simon Merrells, who will play Marcus Crassus and Anna Hutchison as Laeta.